Good Luck, Fred; and leave Torres alone

As I’ve written before, Fred Lewis is a good guy and a hard worker. I wish him well in Toronto and hope he gets his wish to become a starting outfielder.

When a trade like this is made, I’m often asked for an instant analysis on whether it was a good idea. Truth is, I don’t know. We can look at his numbers in hindsight and see what they will look like in months ahead, but numbers don’t always tell the story.

I do know this: Last year the Giants made Lewis the starting left fielder, and his OPS went from .823 in April to .778 in May to .448 in June, by which time he was on the bench.

The Giants probably did not help Lewis by moving him around the lineup, but he didn’t help himself with an inability to adapt.

Beyond the numbers, though, are bigger issues. Lewis and his representatives have been fed up with the Giants and asking for a trade for almost a year now. The Giants over the winter signed Mark DeRosa to play left field, the only outfield position Lewis can play in San Fran; and though there could have been games when DeRosa moved to the infield and Lewis played left, Lewis was going to be a backup outfielder, and he would have chafed.

The Giants have a good thing going in their clubhouse right now. The last thing they need is a disgruntled reserve, even if he could prove he is better than Nate Schierholtz or John Bowker or Andres Torres, which would have been no sure thing.

Which brings me to another point. Fans are hammering the Giants for keeping Torres over Lewis and hammering manager Bruce Bochy for playing Torres over Bowker two games in a row against Pirates left-handers.

On the latter point, I agree. I would have liked to see Bowker start at least one of those two games and thought manager Bruce Bochy sent a bad message to Bowker (“Well, we really do trust you to hit against lefties, but not really.”).

But it’s silly to rag on management or Torres for his presence, even with an 0-for-7 start.

Last year, Torres hit .338/.397/.718 in 78 plate appearances against left-handed pitching. He also had a good spring. You don’t make snap decisions to DFA a guy based on nine games, especially when your bench lacks right-handed bats and Torres might be the best defender among your six outfielders (or at least tied with Schierholtz).

It’s like the hue and cry to dump Eli Whiteside and bring up Buster Posey because he had one bad game at the plate against Atlanta on Saturday. Never mind that Giants pitchers love throwing to Whiteside. Next time he started, Whiteside hit a three-run homer and caught another 11-strikeout Sanchez game.

I understand that I’m spitting into the wind here, but give a guy 40 games — one-quarter of the season — before making any grand judgments. Talk about good signs and early trends, but don’t ship a guy off because of one or two bad games.